


The New World

by FiscalCliff (eyewritesight)



Category: Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Characters To Be Added As They Become Plot Relevant, Death Is Both An Issue And A Nonissue, Gen, Shenanigans
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:14:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26018599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eyewritesight/pseuds/FiscalCliff
Summary: On Nov 6 2022, 09:00 GMT the one hundred thousand players logged in to Sword Art Online disappeared. To the extent of my knowledge, all players logged into Sword Art Online at the time of the transport were taken to Aincrad, and by extension, the New World. This is my personal account of that time. [A Log Horizon Inspired Alternate Universe]
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	1. 1-1

**Author's Note:**

> Crossposted from FF.net because I think AO3 is a better platform. I started this way back in 2017 as a Sword Art Online AU loosely inspired by Log Horizon. I haven't exactly been the best at updating it, but I'm really fond of pretty much everything about this fic (including lots of stuff that hasn't been put to paper yet), so I do intend on continuing to update it, hopefully more often than once a year.

2024-11-6

  
I.  
Last night, Kayaba and I were talking. It hadn't occurred to me that two full years had passed since the ascendance until he brought it up. One thing led to another and we began discussing the history of this world and by extension, keeping of that history. Well, the non-existence of it, really. I was surprised that in the past two years no one had thought to keep a record of our ordeals, though, I suppose the threats of imminent death and anarchy are enough to keep one occupied.

  
Anyways, we really dug into it, and were talking practically until the sun came up. We ended up coming to the conclusion that keeping a history wouldn't just be for the sake of posterity. Not only could we use this as an opportunity to start compiling a true encyclopedia, much better than what Kayaba's managed to compile with his skill in spare time, but if we were to ever make it back to the old world, we would need an objective account of our time in Aincrad. Kayaba's out posting an advertisement for historians, writers, editors, anyone with a relevant degree or experience, really, right now. As for me, I'm working on something related.

  
Kayaba and I agreed that not only did there need to be a broad and objective history, but also personal accounts. Tales out of daily life as a blacksmith, the rush as you launch into a sword skill, the experience of creating an entirely new code of laws. We'll ask that Diavel encourage people to start journals at the next forum, and those who already have them to submit them. This would all come with the option of complete anonymity, of course. Perhaps we could pay some NPCs to do it? They're generally less involved with us and therefore neither know nor care about the lives of other players. This would allow us to produce copies for recordkeeping's sake.

  
Anyone reading this has probably already realized that this is my own journal. It's a personal memoir of my time in Aincrad, the new world. I've tried to convince Kayaba too, but it looks like I'll be writing for the both of us. He says that he's always been more scientist than writer, but then I reminded him that he said I was more of a scientist than he. I'm pretty sure he's still thinking up a rebuttal to that one. As I can't assume that everyone reading this is aware of the events leading up to now, allow me to return to exactly two years and one day from the time of writing this, when Aincrad became home for me and just a few thousand other people.

  
II.  
I should preface this with some background about who I am, as I have no intention for this text to be anonymous. My name is Maxwell Cartwright, though some prefer to use my IGN, Wright. I am twenty seven at the time of writing this. Those of you from Aincrad likely know me as "The Scary Senate Advisory/Clearer lady".

  
It's generally seen as poor etiquette to inquire about a citizen of Aincrad's past life. Some among us even go so far as to only be known by their IGNs. I wouldn't like to delve too far into my own past, but some context will be necessary. Up until a year before the launch of SAO I was a member of my country's military, and had been loaned to the United Nations peacekeeping force. Then, in 2021 I was injured in the line of combat and honourably discharged. My injury was a permanently disabling one, and required the use of forearm crutches to maintain mobility. I was still young, so I pursued a university degree, but my past times of running, hiking and even simple things such as going out with friends became significantly more difficult.

  
I had been an avid gamer since junior high, and was able to pick up the hobby again due to the previous events. When the SAO closed beta was announced I jumped at the chance for obvious reasons.

  
III.  
A note to future readers: The text takes a more prose-like bent from here on, as I begin the story of how I got to now. It seems like something out of a work of fiction, so I felt it appropriate to write as though it was.

  
It was 12:00 am mountain time when I logged into the official release of Sword Art Online for the first and last time. The windows were shuttered, my schedule for the next day clear and I was itching to get in. It was addictive really, the sensation of freedom that came with being able to run, jump, fight, and not be tied to a pair of crutches. To say that the last three months had been hellish was an understatement. I was practically jumping with joy, not that I could literally jump, at the prospect.

  
At this point I was familiar with the sudden rush of visual, auditory and tactile sensation that came with starting up the Nervegear. I decided it prudent to keep my avatar from the beta test. I'd spent hours creating an idealized version of myself, no sense throwing it all away. It took me a few minutes to get used to my body after so long out of it. While I had tried to make the dimensions similar to my real life self as possible, some things were ever so slightly off. My arms and legs were slightly longer and I was perhaps a half centimetre taller. This meant constant tripping and overextending as I got used to my body. That people could add an extra foot to their height or even play as the opposite gender was baffling. I was only a few millimetres off and something still felt uncanny about this body, as though I simply inhabited it, and had hijacked it from its original owner. Thinking back, I suppose I can at least be grateful that we have our original bodies here in the new world. Body Dysphoria would have quickly become the number one mental illness among citizens of Aincrad otherwise.

  
I'd become fairly used to the new body after an hour or two of fighting the boars around the Town of Beginnings or the "noob boars" as they're commonly referred to now. Thankfully, everyone was still a "noob" at about an hour in, so few had ventured much farther. I was confident enough in my new body to move to the forest northwest of here. There were more mobs of a higher level and fewer people. My dagger would suffice, having bought a better one, and while I was a little underleveled it wasn't an issue.

  
One of the ridiculous, yet amazing things which I missed most about the original game were the running mechanics. One could maintain a fast jog for an infinite amount of time and your sprint time was entirely dependent on your skill level. My sprint skill was still in its infancy, but still allowed for a sprint of about four hundred metres at a time, which recharged as I jogged. These two factors combined with unequipping my armor turned what would have been a half day's march in real life into a leisurely hour long jog.

  
The mobs found in the forest were more challenging with higher levels and more aggressive AI, but they were still nothing I hadn't dealt with before. I eventually came upon a group of windwasps. Readying for an attack, I drew my dagger. They would charge one at a time in quick succession with either a bite or stinger attack, before an approximately five second period of delay where they could only evade and counterattack. The three here wouldn't be a problem. I'd spent so much time here and deeper into the forest that the AI of these mobs may as well have been branded into my brain. The first one charged forward, and I parried its stinger away, my attention already shifting to the second. I readied a sword skill as I ducked its bite attack. As it passed over my head, I sprang up, my dagger cloaked in the light of a sword skill. The dagger made a satisfying crunching sound sinking into its thorax. I kicked off a tree branch, activating a thrown sword skill at the same time. Another satisfying crunch, the dagger embedding itself in the wasp's abdomen while I soared over its charge in a back flip. I drew my starter dagger as I landed. There were around two seconds left before the first made another pass. That time, I buried my dagger right between its eyes. Nevermind that its weak spot wasn't actually there.

  
My breathing was heavy, my heart beating like crazy, and it was the most alive I'd felt in months. I must have had a pretty crazy grin on my face. Maybe I was a combat junkie, but the battlefield was the only place where I ever really felt alive. I was hyper-alert and my senses seemed to pick up every little detail around me, from the swaying of the tree branches to the sound of movement in the background, to the smell of the leaf litter. Yeah, I couldn't do a midair back-flip in real life, but that was what the system assist was for. A window popped up, telling me I had gained fifty-two experience, seventy col, a monster drop and leveled up in three of my skills. I dismissed the window and picked up my first dagger. It was then that something unexpected happened. Looking back now it was the least unexpected of what happened that day, which gives some perspective about the absurdity of the events to follow.

  
"You dropped this"

  
My first reaction was annoyance. Part of the reason I had come here was the sweet, sweet solitude. Then, when I got a look at whom it was, that reaction changed to something along the lines of "What the fuck".

  
"Holy shit...Holy shit"

  
I took the dagger from his hand and backed away slowly. The avatar was older but the features and facial structure were the exact same as the one that had been leaked on online forums. Same regal look, same sharp gaze.

  
"Is it really that obvious?" He looked a little disappointed in himself ", I thought changing my age might be enough, and I really liked this avatar too"

  
"No, no I've just got an exceptional memory so I guess you were unlucky enough to meet me can I please thank you for everything you've done I wouldn't be able to experience the sensation of running, jumping and walking normally if it weren't for you developing the Nervegear and SAO I'm so grateful for everything you've done especially allowing me to be part of the beta test thank you sorry" my words were about as coherent as my thoughts.

  
To this day Kayaba still won't let me live it down.

  
"I'm glad to know that the Nervegear changed your life like that. Say, you don't speak Japanese do you?"

  
"No?" I said tentatively.

  
He switched to Japanese "How would you say the automatic translation feature works?"

  
The words appeared in perfect English at the bottom of my HUD. It was amazing, and I said as much.

  
He switched back to English "It's a new feature, though the servers will probably have to be upgraded before we can fully implement it," he said, sounding just a touch proud of himself.  
I relaxed a little as it became clear that even though he was goddamn Akihiko Kayaba, he was in fact, also a person.

  
"What's the creator of Sword Art Online doing out in the forest on launch day anyway?"

  
"I'm not allowed I play my own game?"

  
"When you say it like that it makes sense, but it's like seeing Tim Cook at your local Apple Store"

  
He shrugged and brought up the in game clock. It read 08:57:52

  
"I see what you mean. We've got about seven seconds before we're all transported to the main square and one of the interns gives the welcoming speech"

  
True to his word, I counted to seven and a blur of blue light enveloped the world around me. The disorientation that came with being teleported had never really gone away during the beta and three months away wasn't exactly helping things. I stumbled a little but quickly found my footing. We stood in the central plaza, with about a million other people. Slowly, a red robed figure materialized out of nothing in a way that seemed completely natural, yet completely unnatural. I apologize if that description isn't satisfactory, but it's really the only way to describe the utter mindfuckery that occured. He was about twenty times taller than the average person and the moment I heard his voice I decided it was about twenty thousand times more commanding.

  
"Welcome, my children. While it may not have been I that gathered you here today, I have a purpose for you to fulfill that is greater than anything else you could ever do or imagine"

  
I heard Kayaba beside me ",Shit, that's not in the script"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're reading this, I'd like to thank you for making it this far! As it's probably already evident, this story will be pretty AU, you should expect a decent amount of canon divergence - especially later in the story. The world will be fundamentally different in many ways, although a lot of the biggest changes won't be evident from the beginning. For now, just buckie up for the ride and shoot me a comment telling me what you think if you can.


	2. 1-2

"What do you mean it's not in the script?"

Kayaba didn't have a chance to answer. The robed figure began talking again and I may as well have tried to tear a rock in half with my bare hands because it would have been easier than averting my attention.

"There is no escape. I await the strong at the top of Aincrad"

And then he, it, whatever, was gone. There was no brilliant flash of light, no sound, not the slightest indication he had left. In fact, it was more like the world had simply returned to the state that it had been before his arrival. There was, however, a flashing red exclamation mark in the corner of my HUD. The one that they used for admin announcements and maintenance notices during the beta test, the things that you read even if you read nothing else, unless you liked being surprise kicked out of full dive.

I brought the notice up with a gesture, and its source fell into my hand. It was a small mirror, not unlike one I might keep in my bag. On looking into it, I wasn't really able to comprehend what I saw. It was me, but the wrong one. Not ingame me, but real world me. Mousy blonde hair, too gaunt face, ghost of a scar across my cheek, everything I had tried to leave behind. There was a little tinkle as it fell out of my limp hand and shattered on the ground, which didn't make any sense either. The mirror should have dissolved into a shower of blue polygons upon reaching zero durability.

"Is this supposed to be happening?" I asked, picking up the largest mirror shard.

There was a scrap of vain hope that I wasn't actually me, but it was dashed as I ran a hand over the old scar on my cheek, feeling the ever so slight depression in the flesh there. Looking at Kayaba was further confirmation. He looked like the person in all the interviews now, same sharp features and skinny frame. His gaze was scrutinizing. It examined all the aspects of this world, as though he had created it – because he literally had created it, and it came back wanting.

"None of this is supposed to be happening. I know that wasn't Hide's voice. Actually it hardly sounded human. That mirror shouldn't be doing that either. Broken objects were never coded into the game," He smiled wryly at that ", not that the players ever needed or were supposed to know. It's just a cool particle effect otherwise, right?"

Kayaba's words brought me back to reality. I could obsess over my appearance and he could wax poetic about game design later. Right now, things were becoming unruly as people panicked, yelled and confusion reigned supreme. I was occasionally jostled by the moving crowd that was becoming rowdier by the second, the air was hot with all the additional body heat and felt almost suffocating to breathe. We needed to get out. Crowds could be calmed down, but you'd need a regiment of riot police and loud speakers to even have a chance with all the people here, which appeared to be all one hundred thousand that had been logged in during launch hour.

"We need to go. There isn't much we can do to control a crowd this size"

I started elbowing my way towards the nearest exit. Kayaba followed in tacit agreement. We moved quickly, now not exactly being the time for a leisurely stroll. Unfamiliar faces passed us by and some of them looked at Kayaba in recognition. Elbow made contact with plate armor and I winced. The crowd was particularly thick near the exit arch. It seemed that a lot of people had gotten the idea of leaving. Thankfully, whoever designed the square had possessed knowledge of exit design and traffic was at least flowing smoothly. Kayaba had put on a cloak at some point to cover his face, so that was one less thing to worry about.

On getting outside, we moved out of the way and into a side alley, stopping there. Neither of us had apparently given any thought to what we would do once we got out here. We both stood there for a moment, burning daylight, and then Kayaba brought up his menu and frowned.

"My admin privileges are gone if you were wondering," he said "and the logout button is gone too"

I sighed ", of course it is. Is there anybody else you know who might be ingame?"

Kayaba chuckled "The core dev team was actually all supposed to stay on the outside, in case something happened. I'd expected that "something" to maybe be server issues or a bug that had slipped by us. Not this" He gestured around himself ",There's not much you can do in full dive that you can't do out of it, but I kind of snuck off and went for a dive anyways. Head developer wanting to see people enjoy his finished product and all that. But no, while it's very possible that there are people from the dev team here, they wouldn't be people I knew. We were over two thousand strong, so it's impossible to have known most people working on the game"

"Okay," I sat down on a conveniently placed bench, looking up ", If we're really stuck here I suppose it's probably best that as few people are here as possible, but it would have been nice to have some more people with in and out knowledge of the game"

"Well you'll have to settle for me," he said sitting down on the other end of the bench.

"I didn't mean that you weren't knowledgeable about SAO, it's your game after all. Sorry if that's what I implied. After all, it was your vision that–" I said, backpedalling furiously. I hadn't meant to inadvertently insult Akihiko Kayaba of all people.

"It's fine I know what you meant," Kayaba said, cutting me off before I dug myself deeper into a hole ", I think the question for the two of us is what do we do now?"

We both sat in silence for a moment, thinking. What could we do now? There were one hundred thousand people stuck in Sword Art Online – or at least something that superficially looked and felt like it – together, with us being among their number and nobody with any idea what had just happened. Did we have to eat now, could we die? At that thought, I pulled out the mirror shard from a pouch in my belt, the afternoon sunlight glinting off of its face, and pressed it against my finger, lightly at first, and then harder. It hurt. Then it hurt more. Then it bled. I watched with a horrified fascination as my HP bar dropped by a pixel and dark red blood beaded on my finger. So did Kayaba, leaning over to get a better look.

"I think we have a problem," Kayaba said.

I looked at him.

"In addition to that," he amended hastily.

I wiped off the blood to find that the wound had already healed. Passive hit point regeneration was apparently still a thing.

"What language am I speaking right now?" Kayaba asked.

"English, obviously…" I trailed off. Kayaba had possessed the barest Asian accent when I had first talked to him. It had been subtle, but enough for a native speaker to notice. Now he spoke clean, uninflected English like it was his native language.

"I was speaking Japanese, I've been speaking Japanese since we got here. I'm hearing you in Japanese right now"

"Despite the fact that I don't speak Japanese" I said, raising an eyebrow.

"Despite the fact that you don't speak Japanese" he echoed.

Great. Not only were we stuck here. Mr Red Cloak could and had done something to our brains. Everything was so fucked up I could hardly keep track of it all. We bled, we looked like ourselves again, and now we all spoke the same language. Tallying it all up, it wasn't hard to believe that wherever we were, it wasn't Sword Art Online the virtual reality MMORPG. In fact, it seemed like the only logical conclusion. I ran my hand over the scar on my cheek again. It felt incredibly real. Then I brought up my menu. That felt just as real, just as conceptually there as my scar.

We sat in silence. Each of us lost in our own thoughts. My armor was making it profoundly difficult to sit comfortably, so I dequipped it, watching as it disappeared in a shower of blue light, revealing the grey casual clothes I had on underneath. The stone wall was abrasive and cool against my skin and it's realness just made me question everything more. Could anything that felt so real actually be a simulation? Everything in Aincrad had a slight digitally generated quality to it, such that it was just barely distinguishable from reality. I wondered if that was on purpose. Kayaba had also taken his armor off, and was staring blankly into the wall ahead of us like it held the meaning to life. Who knows, maybe it did.

I was still until an idea crossed my mind and curiosity overruled my restraint. I kicked up a pebble into my hand with the tip of my boot. Balanced between forefinger and thumb, I reared back, waiting to see if a familiar hum of power appeared in my bones. It did, guiding me through a motion that shouldn't have felt so familiar. The pebble glowed with a crimson light as I loosed it against the wall. It chipped, a little piece of stone flying off the brick as it bounced away.

"That's supposed to be an immortal object," Kayaba said.

"Yep," I agreed. We were past the point of being surprised at immortal objects being very mortal, or sword skills apparently still existing.

Thankfully, something happened before we could lapse back into our respective mental breakdowns. Two young men stepped into the alley, the black haired one explaining his plan.

"Resources are going to quickly become limited as people want to level up and hunt the boar fields around the City of Beginnings clean, we should move to another town and get a head start while we still can. I've got the first floor memorized from the beta, so we should be able to avoid all the dangerous areas"

"Thanks for the offer man, I'm grateful, really. But I've got some friends back there who I was supposed to meet up with later," The red one said, halting in his steps.

The black haired one was about to answer when they noticed us spectating from our bench. The ensuing awkward silence hung ugly in the air for a few moments.

"The spawn rates are dynamic and adjust according to the number of players in the area. Though they wouldn't be able to keep up with one hundred thousand people all in the same area, so I guess you're right that it would be advantageous to get an early start," Kayaba said, the statement sounding like he was reading it out of an encyclopedia. I wondered if would ever pass up an opportunity to talk about his game.

"You're Akihiko Kayaba," the black haired one said, eyes widening.

"I'm Akihiko Kayaba," Kayaba said, voice completely level. He probably got a kick out of doing this to people.

The two of them were close enough now for their in game names to pop up beside their cursors. Kirito and Klein. They both opened their mouths for a moment, closed them, and opened them again. I really hoped I hadn't looked like this the first time I met Kayaba. According to him, I was even worse, but I'm liable to take everything Kayaba says with a grain of salt after two years dealing with him.

"Okay. Awesome. Perfect. Do you have any idea what's happening right now?" Klein said.

"Not in the slightest. Though the world we're in right now appears to be significantly different from the Aincrad we designed," Kayaba answered.

I took the mirror shard out of my pouch again, showing it to them ", Things break, and we bleed now, despite the fact that our HP bars are still very much there. There's more too, but I think the whole feeling pain and suffering thing seems to be the most important"

They nodded, apparently going through the same mental gymnastics we'd just had to do.

"We can help you find your friends if you'd like," I said, jumping at the opportunity for something to do and roping Kayaba in too. There were too many mines to step on right now to think about where I was walking, and Kayaba was the same. We both needed a distraction from our own thoughts.

"I'll help too then," the Kirito said, not one to be left out of the good-deeding.

"Awesome guys! Thanks you two, Kirito" Klein said, addressing first us and then Kirito, immediately brightening up "I said I would meet my friends in the Open Hearth Inn, but I don't actually have any idea where that is now that our map is gone. I don't know if they'll be able to find it without their maps, but hey, it's at least worth a try"

I brought up my map to confirm his statement and found that the only places shown on it were where I had been since being transported to the plaza. Of course that wasn't a problem for the person who had designed the game, or two people who'd had a month to beta test it, but Klein was neither of those.

"Yeah no problem, we'll show you the way," I said, and the others gave their affirmation. Walking to an inn wasn't a very trying task, but it was better than nothing.

I'd have to remember to stay in The Open Hearth Inn if there was ever the chance. The place was swank for a medieval inn. Even in the absence of players it was alive with NPCs singing, drinking and laughing. A bard playing his lute in the corner, the sound of clinking dishes and mugs everywhere and barmaids waiting on people at the tables. Klein scanned around before noticing three people sitting in a booth, locked in intense conversation. He shouted at them and they waved furiously for him to come over.

"They're not all here but that's three of them and three is more than zero!" Klein yelled in jubilation, pumping his arm into the air. Some of the patrons looked over at his outburst, but quickly lost interest. Klein turned to Kirito "Sorry for dragging you all the way over here, I'd feel bad asking you for anything else Kirito, so get going to that village of yours"

Kirito who had seemed uncomfortable since entering the tavern looked at Klein in surprise "You're sure?"

"I'm sure," Klein said, and grinned ", I used to run a guild in the other game I played, so don't worry too much about me"

Kirito grabbed the hand that Klein had stuck out for a handshake and then gave us a small smile, turning towards the tavern door. He seemed torn between leaving and staying for a brief moment as he stood in the doorway, but then gathered himself, leaving in a full out run. As for me and Kayaba, we looked at each other and both knew that we wouldn't be staying here. There was more to know, more to find out about the world we now found ourselves in.

"I can see by your looks right now that you don't want to stay. I don't want you to feel obligated to either. Like I said, I'll manage, just like I've managed before," Klein said, his voice firm.

I nodded in acknowledgement and he gave us both a firm handshake. We left too, not at a full run like Kirito, but we had a purpose in our step now. There were lots of people out there like Klein and his friends. One hundred thousand in fact.


	3. 1-3

"I need to go kill something. Not just because I'm feeling fired up or whatever. We need to see if combat is still the same, because if it's not…" I left the rest of sentence to implication, thinking back to the tiny bead of blood that had seemed for all the world like an ocean.

"Better now against some weak mobs," Kayaba agreed.

We equipped our armor and began our way through the streets of Aincrad, avoiding major thoroughfares and keeping our hoods up. It wasn't that I didn't trust the people here. But I didn't trust people who were distressed, confused and afraid. Kayaba had his own, obvious, reasons for keeping his hood up. He also must have had a reason for sticking around with me, now that the immediate distress of our situation had worn off, but I wasn't going to look a gift lion in the mouth.

I tried my best not to hear the confusion and fear all around us, but it was a long walk to the city limits. The City of Beginnings was small for a city built to house more than the current game population along with an equally sizable amount of NPCs, with narrow streets and close packed buildings that often loomed over the alleyways that cut through them. By the time we'd reached the outer walls, the afternoon sun hung lazily in the sky, producing long shadows. A bird cawed somewhere in the distance. The density of people had thinned out the further away we got from city centre, but a steady stream of the brave and foolish served had served as our companions. There was a significant smattering of people milling around the open gates which led out of the city, perhaps because everyone knew that danger wasn't far away, and now that they were close to taking part in it, hesitation had struck.

We stepped over the line of bricks marking the end of the safe zone with little ceremony. It didn't feel any different out here. I didn't feel any more mortal than I had before.

"Hey, it just occurred to me that I hurt myself inside the safe zone. Had that been coded into the game before?" I asked, rubbing my fingers against the spot where I had cut myself.

"Nope" Kayaba said, stopping, pausing to think for a moment ", you're thinking that one of us needs to stab the other, aren't you?"

"How did you know?" we stepped back into the safe zone.

"Because I was too," Kayaba brought up his inventory and a dagger materialized out of blue light and thin air ", stab me"

I took the knife out of his hand, but hesitated ",Okay, but it feels kinda weird – actually it feels really weird stabbing someone you've just met that also happens to be Akihiko Kayaba, lead designer of Sword Art Online, the game-shaped reality you're currently stuck in"

"No hard feelings as long as you don't stab me too hard," Kayaba said, smiling wryly beneath his hood.

He held out his hand, expectant. So I stabbed him. And nothing happened. Because we were inside a safe zone, the blade bounced off him in just the way that rocks don't. I handed Kayaba back the dagger and he promptly pressed it against his own hand. A small red cut opened up on his hand and his health bar decreased by a miniscule amount. We both watched as the tiny wound closed itself before any blood could well out. Passive health regeneration sure was nice.

"So it's the intent that matters in safe zones" he said, and promptly began walking in the direction we'd been headed before.

"Yep," I agreed, trying my best to process that surreal little interlude. Had anyone ever told Kayaba he was weird? Because he most definitely was. Maybe it was a child prodigy thing. Then again, I'd had the exact same thought. Maybe we were both weird.

The boar fields were basically the first thing you encountered on leaving the City of Beginnings. Crowded would be an understatement at the moment, the bolder part of a hundred thousand people having ventured out to farm experience. We ventured on, in mutual agreement that somewhere less cluttered might better suit us, until distressed shouts in the distance rose above the standard din of combat. Looking in their direction, I saw a group of players in the middle of having their asses handed to them by a mini boss. Before I could even deliberate on whether help would be appreciated and/or necessary, a mob of the helpful and/or the opportunistic had swarmed the hapless boar like one of those videos of piranhas in the amazon stripping a fish clean to the bone.

"That's not a balance issue. We anticipated things like that happening for the first week or so before the player base became more spread out," Kayaba commented dryly "Of course, we also anticipated that logins would be staggered due to time zones"

"I see. But surely you had anticipated the sheer volume of people that would be on during launch? Anyways, if there's this many people out here it looks like we'll have to walk a lot farther than the edge of the fields like I was thinking. How far out do you think?"

"To answer your first question: Yes, we did anticipate the launch period volume and accordingly adjusted the spawn rates, but the system isn't capable of running as many AI at the same time as would be necessary to maintain the player density-difficulty curve we use to adjust spawn rate, so we ended up deciding to just take the hit for the first week or two" He grimaced "You always end up having to cut corners somewhere during game development, although I'm not sure those boars are even following their standard AI anymore. And as for the other question, forgive me if you'll allow me a moment to consider my answer"

We walked side by side in silence as Kayaba took a moment to deliberate ",Honestly, I think we should head to Medai, the next town to the North, and on the way to Tolbana, which is where we originally placed the first Labyrinth after kicking you guys out of the beta test"

"To a different town?" I said even as the idea sounded more and more convincing in my head.

The City of Beginnings was likely designed to hold even more people than it did right now, but the current state of its organization was something akin to the American Wild West. And while that was fine when SAO was a video game…

I did feel distinctly guilty about leaving behind a large city's worth of people who could probably use the knowledge and experience of a beta tester and the person who had designed the game, just as I had in the inn with Klein and his friend, but I reminded myself that in leaving we had made the implicit decision to help ourselves first. As selfish as that sounded in my head, it was the same logic they gave you on those pre-flight safety videos – "before you help others put on your oxygen mask first" and all that jazz.

"Actually, I think you're right. If we can grind our levels up to the mid-teens and then find the labyrinth that's real, concrete progress that we could conceivably accomplish. I wouldn't even know where to start in sorting out that mess," I said, gesturing towards the City of Beginnings "We'll probably encounter some mobs on the way there, too"

"Medai it is then," Kayaba said, and that was that.

Remember how I mentioned that I really missed the original SAO's running mechanics? Well the absence of them became very apparent to me in the next few hours as the game, or game shaped world – whatever – turned into a marching simulator. Even in the area beyond city limits, spawn rates were low near roads. We walked in mutual silence for the most part, but Kayaba still found several different opportunities to explain that the low spawn rates were "Mimicking real life" over the next three hours. Sometime between then and now the novelty of meeting him had worn off slightly, that combined with blisters forming in multiple spots on both feet, and the fact that we couldn't unequip our armor on the off chance something did spawn wasn't conducive to happy trails. There was a part of me that was almost relieved when a group of dire wolves emerged from the moonlit forests that had slowly grown out of the fields as we ventured closer to Medai.

"Cover my back and I'll cover yours?"

Kayaba made a noise of assent, holding his shield and sword at the ready. I drew my better dagger, feeling its balance in my hand. The wolves ran towards us and I could see and hear their huffy breathing through slathering jaws that very much wanted to eat us. The first one nearly bowled me over with the force behind its charge. I caught its jaws using the hilt of my knife, and swore I could feel my bones rattling. It slashed up my left shin and I inhaled sharply, swallowing a scream. The leverage of my dagger was just enough for me to maneuver it straight into the path of the other wolf, disengaging as they collided. The force didn't knock either prone, but they staggered in momentary shock and I didn't – couldn't wait to catch my breath. With a savage yell I buried all twelve inches of the blade into the neck of one wolf as Kayaba spun around, bringing his longsword down on the other.

These wolves didn't appear to be powered by AI anymore – they were too fluid, with none of the little moments of downtime between the AI ending one action and initiating the other. The last wolf hadn't done us the favor of waiting for its comrades to finish attacking and Kayaba was knocked backwards as it leaped on him.

Suddenly, it was like a part of me I didn't know about before had sensed my intent to kill. I'd never been high on cocaine before, but in my imagination this is what it felt like. Everything was faster and slower at the same time and I moved like my entire body was caught in a sword skill, getting around Kayaba and behind the dire wolf he was struggling with in a split second using a form of motion that seemed like the halfway point between teleportation and sprinting. I didn't think about fighting, but I didn't have to. I'd drawn my second dagger at some point and practically fileted the wolf along its side by the time I even realized what I was doing. Then I tried to catch myself on my injured leg and tripped over my own momentum, landing on my ass. A notification with excellent timing popped up just as I hit the ground. I'd gained 68 experience, 120 col and a wolf-skin from that encounter. That was apparently enough to level up in agility, dexterity and whatever "precision killer" was, along with pushing me to level two.

"What the hell was that?" Kayaba approached, offering a helping hand.

"According to the game, 'Precision Killer'," I said, shrugging and taking his hand "Did you level up too?"

"Yep, to level three," he said "I've got a wolf's paw now too"

Kayaba made a show going through his skill list, picking combat out of the broader subcategories and then scrolling to where Precision Killer should have been in his list. Honestly, he could have just told me that he didn't remember ever putting that skill into the game.

"It's not there"

I took a moment to open my own skill list, expanding the description on precision killer. Most skills had a simple explanation on what it did and how one could go about leveling it up but this one simply said "A gift from god. Learn it well and use it well"

"It's a gift from God, apparently," I leaned aside to show him my window before realizing that was stupid, but the window didn't follow me like it was supposed to. Instead, it was like the window could read my thoughts, staying fixed in place.

He frowned, scanning the brief description ",What isn't at this point"

We watched as the wolf in front of us twitched a few more times and then dissolved into a shower of blue polygons.

"Jeeze. Talk about lack of a cohesive design philosophy," I looked back to where the other two wolves should have been. My dagger lay by itself on the dirt road.

"It hurts me, what's been done to my game," Kayaba said "I guess that's the problem when you make my game world realistic but decide that you still want enemies with the potential to spawn infinitely"

"Yeah, the bodies would build up like crazy. Now that I think about it, the only dead boars I saw today were ones that had just been downed"

I turned to get my dagger and winced, freezing. I hadn't realized just how much I'd been favoring my right leg and the injury that had been all but forgotten in the sudden rush of adrenaline, hurt so bad that tears began welling up in the corners of my eyes. I looked down at a long set of ugly gashes running up my leg, soaking the fabric wet with deep red venous blood. Some part of my mind reminded me I was lucky it hadn't hit an artery – did our video game bodies even have arteries and veins? Or were we just sacks of blood waiting to be burst open like water balloons? – The rest of it was currently in too much pain to focus.

Kayaba handed me a healing potion ",Your leg is hurt"

The stopper came off with a little pop, revealing a clear, teal liquid that shimmered attractively, even in the dimming light, and I downed the potion in a single swig. It tasted like comfort and almost immediately, a tingling sensation spread up my leg. I watched the flesh there reknit itself with remarkable efficiency. In the time it took for Kayaba to retrieve my dagger, my leg had healed completely, the green health bar in the corner of my vision refilling accordingly.

"Thanks," I took my dagger from Kayaba, sheathing it behind my back ", They don't taste the same as before"

"The healing potions?"

"Before, it was just like drinking water, but now, it's hard to describe, but it's certainly not unpleasant. In fact it's amazing. Actually, I think I'd describe it as the best thing I could conceivably taste, and yet you don't want more after finishing one"

The rest of the way to Medai was uneventful. Only a sliver of the sun was visible above the horizon by then and everything was cast in a warm orange light by the time we arrived. My HUD clock read 20:00, but we were both just grateful to have reached civilization. I brought up my map, looking at the distance between Medai and the City of Beginnings. 10 miles. In _armor_ , and in less than three hours, too. The limits of human endurance slider seemed to have been adjusted for these bodies. If they actually were our real bodies. But I suppose it wasn't surprising that a thing that called itself "God" would have been able to do that.


	4. 1-4

"There you go, 60 col," I said.

"Thank you, young lady," the NPC farmer gave me a warm smile, swiping closed his own menu screen as the transaction finished

"I'll have Lisa bring the two of you some dinner once it's finished," he said as we parted ways.

"Much obliged, sir"

So, Kayaba was capable of being polite like a normal person, then. When he'd stopped our host on the side of the road and asked him about an inn, the old man had just laughed at us like we were crazy and said ", Maybe if you want to walk thirty miles to Tolbana, son". Kayaba had made a sour expression upon being called "son", but managed to stay courteous then, too. The old man had offered to put us up, meals included, quickly enough and now here we were.

"It's hard to get over the dissonance of e-transferring money with people who are otherwise stuck in the early-modern period," I said, shaking my head as we strolled towards the barn where we'd just secured lodgings for the night.

"You didn't have a problem with it while it was still a game"

"It was easier to suspend my disbelief then"

The inside of the barn smelled strongly horse adjacent, probably because two of them stood in stalls against the left wall. I wrinkled my nose, faintly pleased to see that Kayaba also had a rather unpleasant expression on his face.

"Rustic, isn't it?" My voice was laced with sarcasm.

"There's a reason you don't have to go to the bathroom in most RPGs. Immersive realism and annoying realism is a fine line"

Mercifully, it was mostly masked by the scent of freshly cut straw as we climbed into the hay loft. Golden straw was piled high and illuminated by the last of the evening light streaming in through cracks in the boards. Kayaba had had the good sense to dequip his armor a while ago and I followed suit. It was a – literal – weight off my back. We both took a moment to just collapse into the straw piles. I was physically tired in a way that went down to my bones and mentally tired in a way that went down to my mental bones and I said as much to Kayaba.

"Your mental bones?" He asked in a way that was too innocuous.

"It effectively communicates my point, doesn't it?" I said. It was something I believed then and still believe now, which is why I've included it here. For posterity. And maybe a little pettiness.

He scoffed but didn't say anything else. Some rest was in order after the wild ride that had been today. On that point, we seemed to be in agreement, laying on the hay in mutual silence until we heard the sound of footsteps. I sat up far enough to see into the ground floor. There was a young woman – Lisa presumably? – holding three wooden bowls of steaming hot stew. For some reason, I had been expecting an old, stout farm person – Joseph's wife I guess, but Lisa was basically the opposite of all those things. Her face broke into a grin on catching sight of us.

"I thought the three of us could take supper in the barn if that's alright"

I hadn't felt hungry before, but now that food was in front of me I was distinctly aware of the hole in my stomach and didn't waste any time in clambering down the ladder, Kayaba right behind me. Lisa set the bowls down on one of several wooden stumps in a corner of the barn and pulled spoons out of a pocket in her apron.

"I'm Lisa, Joseph's adoptive daughter," she said, handing us each a wooden spoon.

"Maxwell is fine, and this is Kayaba," I gestured beside me. Kayaba gave a perfunctory greeting.

"He and his wife, Esther, have left the two of you in my care for as long as you're here" She sat down on one of the stumps and took a bowl, beginning to eat. I looked at Kayaba, who gestured as though to say "you first". I narrowed my eyes at him. What did it matter who went first? He shrugged.

"You guys can eat now…"

We both turned to look at Lisa, who had unsurprisingly been watching our entire exchange. She had been halfway to bringing the spoon to her mouth and stayed frozen in that position under our gazes. There was a moment of awkward silence before we both sprung into action, grabbing a bowl and sitting down across from Lisa. This had definitely been Kayaba's fault.

"So…what brings you two to Medai?"

"We have some, uh… business in the woods here, and then we'll be on our way to Tolbana," Kayaba said.

Business in the woods? Way to make us sound sketchy as hell. I wasn't sure what I would have said, though. We're here to intentionally kill a bunch of monsters because it will make us quantitatively stronger? Somehow, I got the impression that NPC's didn't really do that kind of thing.

"I figured you wouldn't be staying that long," Lisa sighed, apparently unbothered by Kayaba's claim of vague activities in the local woods "You adventurers always lead interesting lives. I bet there's some stories you could tell"

I looked at Kayaba and Kayaba looked at me. We in fact had no interesting stories to tell. At least, none that would be believable to her.

"Not really," I laughed in a way that I hoped wasn't nervous, scratching at the back of my head "Our lives are pretty boring too"

"Oh come on, I feel like I just saw a hundred of them pass between you," she said, apparently having misinterpreted our moment of eye contact.

"This soup is really amazing," Kayaba said.

Yes, that really was how he tried to change the subject. Smooth talkers we were (and are) not.

"Well…there was that one time I was part of the city guard," I began, adapting a story from my military service to be early modern period friendly "And some people thought there was a ghost haunting us. They would even sprinkle a tiny bit of salt they stole from meals across the entrance to their quarters. But then it turns out that it was just a cat" I finished lamely.

Smooth talkers we were not.

"Huh," Lisa tried her best to sound engaged.

I put more food in my mouth - it really was delicious and filling. Some kind of hearty meat stew with potatoes and other vegetables – and Kayaba picked up the slack in the conversation.

"So, have you lived in Medai your entire life?"

At least we were back in safe territory now.

"That's right" Lisa said "My parents died when I was very young, but Joseph and Esther were my aunt and uncle, and they took me in and raised me because they didn't have any kids of their own. We've lived here our entire lives. Most of the people in these kinds of towns have. It's a simple life, peaceful mostly, but uneventful" She sighed "Maybe one day I'll run off to Tolbana or the City of Beginnings, though. Find some work and send the money back to Joseph and Esther so they can hire a farmhand and finally get some proper medicine for her joint ache"

"We did say we were heading to Tolbana, and the roads can be dangerous. We could escort you if you like," I offered. I tried to think of a subtle way to ask Kayaba if she had been a quest giver in the original game.

She shook her head ", I'm very grateful for the offer, but you shouldn't entertain my silly fantasies. Joseph needs my help in the coming harvest" she sighed, putting her empty bowl down on the vacant stump.

"If we're ever passing through Medai again, we'll try to remember to bring some medicine for your Grandmother," I said, still trying to fish for a quest hook.

"Wow. That's…uh incredibly kind of you, but I can hardly accept it when we've nothing to give you in return," Lisa said, her eyes widening in surprise.

"It's basic courtesy on our part Miss," I said, looking to Kayaba. The question was evident in my eyes, but he could only shrug.

"What's waiting for you in Tolbana anyways? Joseph said you came from the direction of the City of Beginnings"

"We were hoping to find the entrance to the labyrinth. The one that extends into the sky," I said, stacking my now empty bowl on top of the other two.

Lisa's eyes seemed to become even closer to their resemblance to saucers, if that were possible ", Wow, is that what's on the inside? I've heard stories before that if you climbed all the way to the top you would find yourself in heaven, always thinking they were pretty unbelievable, but maybe not…"

I considered telling Lisa that Kayaba and I actually believed that we were in a floating castle with a hundred floors, and that reaching the top would take us to next one, but that sounded incredulous even to me when I put it so plainly.

"You never know," I laughed, standing up. Kayaba followed suit and it signalled the end to dinner. Lisa gathered all the dished back onto her tray, we exchanged the necessary pleasantries and she was on her way.

Kayaba and I made our way back up into the hay loft. I felt too warm after all the hot stew and climbed up the side of the barn to one of the shuttered windows, flinging it open. A cool breeze played across my face and I sighed in satisfaction. If I stuck my head out, I could see fairly far in all directions. Across our host Joseph's plots, to the uncleared forest one way, and the smudge of another farmhouse the other, all of it bathed in dim blue hour light. Outside of my military service, I had lived in urban areas my entire life and was a little bit awestruck by the simple beauty of it all.

"Hey, move over," Kayaba nudged my foot and I shuffled over so that he could climb up as well. He also let out a small sigh of satisfaction when the breeze hit him, and I smiled a little.

"It's not so bad, is it? The whole trapped in an uncanny recreation of a videogame world, separated from friends and family thing notwithstanding," I said, elbowing him lightly.

Kayaba seemed to think about it for a moment, gaze going to a point beyond the forest, the fields and the deep blue sky that couldn't possibly have been real if this were just the first floor of a hundred "It's not so bad," he echoed, although his tone said there was a qualifier, even if nothing was said aloud. I decided that I was too tired to be prying for now and hopped down, landing with a soft fwump in the hay.

"You know, they're real people now," I said, looking up at Kayaba

He made a noise of assent, understanding that I meant the NPCs ", As real as you or me"

"It makes you wonder, if they all just materialized into existence the moment we were all transported here. Lived experience and everything"

Kayaba clambered down from the window ", I don't know where they would have existed before then. The NPCs all act as though we've been a part of this world the entire time"

"So, either they didn't exist until now, or the players had some kind of stand in for them as a group until this point," I stared up at the ceiling, weighing the two options in my head, wondering which was more likely.

"Something to investigate in the future?" Kayaba asked from where he lay in his own pile of hay "For now, I just want to sleep"

"Something to investigate in the future." I pulled a cloak from my inventory, wrapping it around me as protection from the prickly bits of hay and settling into a comfortable sleeping position.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They're such dorks


End file.
